World of Karik: A Game of Villains 69 Seventy-five

Carefully grinding the unusual herb, I put the resulting pulp onto a piece of iron that Dmitri gave me. It was hard to work on Cordyceps. It cost me a lot to grind it into a pulp as its stems and leaves consisted of thick and rough fibers. Some of them I had to throw in the garbage with a heavy heart despite my best efforts to salvage them.

What was left was very little. If I used the same amount as I did with other tinctures, it would be enough for two, maybe three potions. I would try at least. Hardly having waited for the viscous paste to turn into powder, I carefully diluted the ingredient with river water. And now, for the moment of truth!

Cordyceps Tincture

Increases intelligence by 10. Effect lasts for 1 minute.

I stood frozen for a while, feeling deceived. I got used to other tinctures increasing an attribute by three dozen points, so I didn't expect such a disappointment from Cordyceps. Just ten points! Even though I used clean water?! What a shame!

And then it dawned on me. Cursing my ignorance and short-sightedness, I ran to the campfire, grabbed the huge cooking pot, and rushed to the river, followed by astonished gazes of Innokenty and the girls. Carefully removing the remains of food from the pot, I scooped up some water, trying to reach as far as possible from the shore, and dragged the filled pot back to the campfire.

"It's not dinner time yet, Vasily," Innokenty scolded when I hung the pot over the coals and froze, deep in thoughts. "But I see that you brought some water. You want to help me cook?"

"Where are the matches?" I asked, ignoring his question.

Someone giggled. I turned around and saw Ravshana.

"Innokenty has them," she said with a faint smile.

I looked at the guy and extended my hand in demand.

"What do you…?" he started talking, but I interrupted him.

"I need boiled water for an experiment," I hoped that that would be enough to satisfy his curiosity.

"You ran to the river for that?" Innokenty seemed a bit disappointed. "You should've told me. I've got some water in the teapot."

At this point, I felt awkward. I was so obsessed with my new idea that I forgot about everything. Wait, where did we get the teapot?

"Vlada got it from the merchants," Innokenty explained after I asked.

"Why don't we ever drink tea then?" I was surprised.

"Because we can't make tea without tea leaves," Innokenty sighed. "Did you forget? There are no shops here. We bought a small supply from the merchants, but we ran out of it before…"

He fell silent, preventing himself from making a sarcastic remark about our alliance. Not paying attention to any of that, it suddenly dawned on me that this world was deprived of many simple things. The damned tea, for example. I couldn't say that I desperately needed it, but when we started talking about it I suddenly started to miss its strong and fragrant beverage.

"Petrovich said that the merchants drop by once a month," Marina said. "We will buy plenty of tea the next time they come."

Yeah, I thought. Right, spending stats on food is the most reasonable investment in this world. Who in their right mind would do that? Although, having a cup of warm tea did sound pleasant.

My mood worsened as it usually did whenever Jones the senior was mentioned. Recently I had a dream, or rather, a nightmare, about him. At first, I tried to explain to him why I hadn't visited the Forbidden City yet. And then, like the Devil in some old Slavic fairy tale, he threatened me from a well and shouted, "you owe me." Unfortunately, this wasn't the only dream about that place. I started having such dreams almost every night. Last night I dreamt that I had made a lot of tinctures and convinced Petrovich to arrange a joint expedition. While we were walking through the ruins, some wolf-like creatures with shabby fur gathered around us. I haven't slept soundly since.
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"Yeah, that would be nice," I nodded to Marina and turned to Innokenty. "Can you give me the teapot?"

Awkwardly thanking our new chef, I ran back to my makeshift lab, which occupied a chunk of land not far from the river bank. Having filled the flask made out of a lily stem with the required amount of powder, I poured the water from the battered and blackened teapot and waited, holding my breath.

Purified Cordyceps Tincture

Increases intelligence by 20. Effect lasts for 1 minute.

I got two flasks with intelligence enhancing tincture. I was overjoyed. It wouldn't hurt to test it, but the successful experiment deepened my desire for further research. My mind cleared up, and ideas came to me one after another. I finally decided to take a chance and carry out another experiment. Having built something resembling a simple filter out of rags and coals wrapped in it, I poured the remaining boiled water through it.

Well-purified Cordyceps Tincture

Increases intelligence by 30. Effect lasts for 1 minute.

A triumph! But my joy was short lasting. The boost was impressive, and drinking the tincture could increase my intelligence up to ninety-five, but would that be enough? It was a head start, but a short lived one.

Having given it some thought, I decided to test the potion. I headed to the forest. All I had to do was find a worthy opponent and fight it. It didn't take me long to do so. Not far away from me stood a strange predator that looked like a combination of a fox and a dog.

Predatory Keltir

Level 12

The animal growled and bristled like a wild cat as when saw me. Well, beastie, I'll have to sacrifice you in the name of science. I even grinned thinking about it. Who would've thought that it would be possible to speak of alchemy in that way?

Chapter end